Little Simran Goundalkar aims Big in Para Swimming

Does the label ‘dwarf’ bother Simran Goundalkar, Not really; having grownup in a positive household, she is a normal person, but she just got smaller. This jolly good teen born in 2002 is pursuing her SSLC this year is always keen to jump into the pool and spend her entire life there. She has 24 Gold, 4 silver medals in her kitty out of which 1 Gold was at the International Dwarf games and 11 Gold at the national level.

Simran weren’t a bundle of joy for her parents since birth. They got to know that she is suffering from Achondroplasia, a disorder of bone growth that prevents the changing of cartilage (particularly in the long bones of the arms and legs) to bone. It is characterized by dwarfism, limited range of motion at the elbows, large head size, small fingers, and normal intelligence.

Life wasn’t easy but even then the positive parents never made her feel concerned about this and admitted her to the Divine Providence school. School was supportive no doubt but that sense of approach towards here was different.

One fine day when she was eating her lunch at school, noted Swimming coach Umesh Kalghatgi was at school to hand over the lunch box of his daughter and his eyes fell upon this little 7 year old Simran having her lunch in one corner.

Umesh approached Simran and made a casual inquiry and then after finding her address he met her parents, and told them, she will be a super star one day believe me, just send her for swimming.

The awe struck parents that were always worried about their daughter said lets try this out. And in 2009 she took her first lessons in swimming and like any other child the first week was not so redeeming. For the next six months it was a journey to the pool and back, some days were bad and some days good, but after 6 months of training, she could swim all by her self and now she is a Star.

She has 24 Gold medals in swimming in all forms the biggest being the Gold and Silver at the World Dwarf Games – 2017 held at Ontario, Canada.

She got her first gold medal at the district level when she participated in the Opens event and from then on there is no looking back for this champion.

This journey hasn’t been easy as it looks, she took 2-3 years to learn all the strokes in swimming and now she participates in all of them.

The Happy parents feel proud of their daughter which has become their identity, most know them as parents of Simran, and it’s a great feeling.